Hourly updates on hospital Covid beds soon: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee

KOLKATA: Families have often been facing a harrowing time, running from one packed hospital to another, trying to find a bed to admit their Covid-affected relatives. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who held a meeting with doctors’ forum and senior state officials on Wednesday, had a word of assurance: an information system was being developed that would send out hourly update on bed vacancy in both state-run and private hospitals.
“Patients’ families will no longer have to grope in the dark once the system is in place. They will get to know which hospital they should go to,” Banerjee said at Nabanna.
The CM has also appealed to non-Covid hospitals not to keep patients with serious ailments waiting till they produce a certificate, stating they had not contracted the novel coronavirus. “A patient having a cardiac arrest can’t wait. He should get treatment first. The same applies to a kidney patient in need of dialysis or an accident victim. Such patients should not be asked to produce a no-Covid certificate. It isn’t that simple to get a Covid report. It takes more than 24 hours. Serious patients can’t be left without treatment for such a long time,” the CM said. Chief secretary Rajiva Sinha will sit with CEOs of private hospitals on Thursday to set things in order.
In its bid to ramp up the infrastructure to tackle the novel coronavirus outbreak, the state has set up 104 “safe homes” in addition to the existing 77 dedicated hospitals in Bengal. “These safe homes are meant for treatment of patients with mild Covid symptoms, such as low fever. It happens that a few members of a family contracting the virus throw up mild symptoms, while others’ condition gets serious. We want to keep the hospital beds for serious patients. Doctors will visit the safe homes twice a day and offer treatment,” the CM said.
Banerjee also announced an incentive package for house staff, junior residents and interns in order to rope in more medical professionals in the Covid-treatment pool. Under the package, a house staff treating a coronavirus patient will get a 10% weightage while applying for PG admission. Covid has been included in the “difficult area” category, under which applicants working in rural health centres and hills get an additional weightage. Junior resident doctors treating Covid patients will get a deduction in the compulsory three-year service in rural areas. “The number of months they serve Covid patients will be deducted from the three-year period,” the chief secretary said. The government has also announced a financial incentive and a Covd-warrior certificate for interns.